Guest guest Posted October 24, 2008 Report Share Posted October 24, 2008 Sai Vichaar www.saibaba.org Thursday , October 23, 2008 :: Volume 11, Issue 24 (In its eleventh year of publication.) Sai Vichaar is a Weekly newsletter distributed every Thursday and is devoted to the life, philosophy and teachings of Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi. Feel free to forward this newsletter to your interested associates in its original form. IN THIS ISSUE: FEATURE OF THE WEEK CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE DEVOTEES SAY PRAYER CLUB EXPERIENCE OF DEVOTEES QUOTATION OF THE WEEK QUESTION OF THE WEEK SAI ACTIVITIES FROM THE EDITORS KEYBOARD FEATURE OF THE WEEK: Sai is everywhere and nowhere Stories on the divinity of Sri Sai, His omniscience, all-pervasiveness, and all encompassing benevolence are most interesting. While His sayings are dubbed as mystic and inscrutable, a careful observation would reveal the substance behind His words. Antonio Rigopoulos in his biography on Sri Saibaba wrote thus: "The Charters and Sayings reports a conversation of Sai with a mother and a son in which Baba first denies his divine identity and later gives a vision of himself as a four-armed god. Sai asked the son for eight rupees. Since the boy didn't have them, he directed him to Bapusaheb Jog. The latter was reading from the Dhruvacharita and commenting on it, told the boy:" Saints, though not God, have some powers derived from them". The boy came back to Baba quite angry and told him how there were persons who said that he was merely a man and not God. Then Baba said: "Then what is untruth in that? Hallo, what am I? A Petty fakir! I am not God. How Great is God! No one can compare with him. Here Baba adheres to the basic tenet of Islam concerning God's radical transcendence and unknowability. Soon after having said this, however, he is reported to have given a vision of himself as a four-armed Hindu god, thus confirming the boy's faith in his divinity! The story is a good example of Sufi as well as Hindu mysticism, elucidating a paradoxical coincidentum oppositarum, that is, the transcendence and at the same time immanence of the divine: God, in other words, is both everywhere and nowhere". CONTRIBUTED ARTICLE: Gratitude and Devotion Time and again, it needs to be stressed that mere gratitude to Sainath for what He bestowed on us is not enough. The gratitude must lead to the pure state of devotion. Few are born with the absolute realization of Omniscient and Omnipresent God. For the most, the first encounter with the supreme conscious happens as a result of an event that defies logic. Everyone of us stand a testimony to this phenomenon; students getting rewards that they did not expect, hopeless patients whose fortunes were reversed for the better, the jobs that we believe Baba give us, and even the occasional bliss our spiritual pursuits have brought us. It is also the experience of several that such gratitude fades away slowly with time as other priorities occupy the lives. Although conscious of the never ending chain of wants and desires, the spiritually aspiring mind gives in to what appears as the real happiness. Stages of life according to Hindu scriptures include balya (infancy), kaumarya (youth), grihastha (household), and vanaprastha (retirement). It is thought that vanaprastha is a stage where in, the man proceeds for a recluse in woods and spends time in search of spiritual fulfillment. The myth of life also concocts convenient justifications for waiting for tomorrow, not realizing that tomorrow does not exist for granted. Time is an entity that human life has no control over. Shri B.V. Hanumantha Rao wrote "Sai Anusaranamu" a great work on Sainath of Shirdi in Telugu, "Time is a valuable commodity. There should be no waiting to initiate any kind of attempt for liberation. It should be done when all our senses are in right order and we have the right physical and mental condition. It is a common practice for man to wait until the earthly life is settled, and it is his tendency to procrastinate until he will be ready for the spiritual journey. In reality, such a day may not come at all. Every stage of life brings with it, its own situations that may demand one's time and attention. (Contributed by Sai Vichaar Team) DEVOTEES SAY: Sashi VenkatDear Baba, Thank you so much for blessing me with a beautiful family. I want to pray to you to please help my daughter to get seat for her MBA this year itself. She prays and believes you and I pray to you to please get her a seat for her MBA. Thank you Baba once again for everything you have done for all of us. With lots of Love JeganathanOm babaji, we my family is trying to follow your path of dharma. true we made mistakes. please forgive us. thank you very much for your help without you we are nowhere. babaji pl help me to serve others you showed me hundred of miracles. Babaji please my daughter is very sad. i know all karm. anyway please show your grace to overcome her problem and give her more confidence and courage. thank you babaji SavithriThis is to say THANKS TO SAI BABA. Thank you once again baba for giving me normal health. As promised to you i am sending this article. DevinaOm Sai Ram, BABA you are great. You have heard my prayers. You have fulfilled my wishes. His parents have agreed for the marriage. Thank you baba for this. Please be with us all the time. I invite you to come on my wedding day and bless us. Thanks BABA. Please be with us and with your devotees. Help everybody PRAYER CLUB: TeresitaI want you make the miracle of let my friend luis guerra left russis to united state, he is cuban and he want to be with me and his family.I know you can do it. I beleive in your prayer. your daugther DevoteeBaba, my parents are old and suffering.dad is always depressed. pl.help him to be happy and cure him of his low hemoglobin.he has to go in for blood transfussion.Baba pl. help him to build his own blood.let the blasts be what it should be.His WBC & RBC should increase.Baba help my mum see better as she has AMD and is heart patient.Koti Koti Pranaam.thank you Baba RANJANBABA, PLEASE BLESS SARAH WITH A PERMANENT JOB MY LORD. SHE HAS BEEN TRYING FOR SO LONG & NOTHING HAS BEEN FORTHCOMING. BABA WE SURRENDER AT THY LOTUS FEET & PRAY SINCERELY TO YOU TO BLESS HER WITH A PERMANENT JOB AT ENTABENI HOSPITAL. DevoteeBaba please help my husband, he is not able to achieve his targets at his work. Baba you know everything. If he will be successful in what he wants to do all our problems will be solved. Baba pls help him and i understood what you wanted to explain me by the story of the frog and the snake. Pls make me strong enough to forgive and forget(the way you have explained it to me today. I`m sorry for all my bad thoughts) and keep me away from the negative thoughts. Thank you for guiding me always. Jai Sai Ram. I tried so many times to make my home nice place. But Baba I cannot do alone I want my husband to understand his part also. Baba now I left my life on you. If you give me happiness i will accept it if you give me unhappiness in life I will accept it. But Baba no father leave their girl crying. I am your kid asking your help. Please Baba help me. Meenakshiom sri sairam. My daughter and son should study well. daughter is going to write public exam. she should get nice marks. make her to study well and give her enough memory power and concentration on studies. baba only you can do this.help me. I should get your blessing for joining the new programme baba. bless me. EXPERIENCE OF DEVOTEES: DevoteeI would like to share my joy that I felt when I first visited Shirdi this August. I have become a Sai devotee for the past 9 month through a friend. She had such wonderfull things to say about Lord Sai that I was moved emotionally. I made my mind then and there that this time when I visit India I have to go to Shridi. We had planned a long journey and my husband was worried how our 6year old daughter would take it as she is or shall I say was a wheezing child. But the 15day trip which ended in Shridi was beautiful. My daughter who frquently falls sick with infection and wheezing was totally hale and hearty. We stayed for 2 days in Shridi and attended the Kakda Arthifor which I have no words to express my joy and bliss. It was truly magificent and I felt Lord Sai was there in personblessing all of us. I always feel He is looking over us where ever we go.I am very grateful to my friend who told me about the greatness of Lord Sai. We returned back from India with a feeling of peace and contentment. This trip was really unforgetable on two issues going to Shridi and my daughters health which has remarkable improved after we have come in contact with Lord Sai.OM SAI RAM Sai DevoteeSairam, I owe a lot to Baba and he is everything to me. Few months back I had a big problem at my job and Baba solved so amicably. This happened while I was watching few systems in our company. One of the systems was waiting for a file from another system and after waiting for 3 hrs at about 1:00 AM, I took the decision to go without the file. At 1: 0 AM the much awaited file arrived and I was shocked to see the amount of money involved in the file , it was 249 million US dollars. Next day I was called for explanation and the whole day I was in tense about my decision. I was praying Baba to help me and resolve the issue. In the evening we came to know that the amount in the file was off by 2 million dollars and it was a bad file. The rectified file was sent that night for processing. Baba Saved My job. Om Sai Sri Sai Jai Jai Sai. QUOTATION OF THE WEEK: "The liquid essence of Pure Self was poured into the mould of Brahma and out of this has come out the crest-jewel of the saints-Sai. This Sai is Atmarama Himself. He is the abode of perfect divine bliss. Having Himself attained all objects of life, He made His devotees desire less and free"-Sri Sai Satcharitha QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Q. What is the significance of chapter 15 of Sri Sai Satcharitha? A. by Rajeev The Post Script to Chapter 15 of Sri Sai Satcharitha states that those who respectfully read this Chapter or study it daily, will get all the miseries removed by the grace of the Sadguru Sai Baba. What is the significance of this chapter? The significance is that Sai Baba is omniscent, he knows the devotion, love, and faith his bhaktas have, that Baba is always there with us in our good and bad times and we should not think that he is not there with us. With sincere Faith & Patience Baba answers everybody's prayer. I have been reading for past one and half year Sai Satcharitha regularly with few breaks in between, which gave me beautiful insights which enabled to make my life much more happier and better. I would suggest that one should read Sai Satcharitha and make a discipline of atleast reading one chapter everyday no matter what, if you have the faith, you will be surprised that everything falls in place making it possible to read Sai Satcharitha. SAI ACTIVITIES: Shirdi Sai Temple of Chicago and Suburbs, Illinois, USAShirdi Sai temple is open daily from 7:00 a.m to 9:00 p.m.(Summer hours). Daily program includes Kakad Arathi at 7 a.m. followed by Abhisek. Madhayana Arathi at 12 noon, Dhoop Arathi at 6 p.m. and Shej Arathi at 9 p.m. Archana, Homams, Sahasranama and sponsored poojas continue in between the Arathis. To request a pooja for yourselves, your friends and family, please call. Devotees can request water (Abhishek Jal) from the Holy bathing of Baba by sending us an email or by phone. Temple is located 25 minutes drive west of Schaumburg on intersection of IL Route 47 and Plank Road in Hampshire, IL. For more information please call 847-931-4058 or send email to maildrop. Sri Saibaba Mandir, Minneapolis, MNSri Saibaba Mandir is located in Minneapolis, MN at 1835 Polk St NE, Minneapolis, MN 55418. The mandir is open 7 days a week in the evenings from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm and during morning hours from 9 am to 12:30 pm, everyday. Satsangs are conducted every Sunday mornings, 9 am to 12:30 pm. Please visit the mandir website www.hamaresai.org or call 612-789-7729 for more information on mandir activities, events and other information. Sri Shirdi Sai Baba Temple of Dallas/Fort Worth, TexasSri Shirdi Sai Baba Temple of DFW Metroplex is located at 2109 West Parker (Parker Plaza), Suite 212, Plano, TX 75023. For temple hours and activities please call the temple office at 469-467-3388 or visit the website www.shirdisaidallas.org. Shirdi Sai Temple of New England, Boston AreaSri Shirdi Sai Baba Temple of New England is now operational. It is located at 1827 Bridge St # 8, Dracut, MA 01824. The temple is open every Thursday from 7.00 pm to 9.00 pm and Saturday's from 4.00 pm to 7.00 pm. For temple hours and activities please visit the website www.nessp.org or send mail to maildrop. Shirdi Sai Center in Bay Area, CAShirdi Sai Center is located 897-B East Kifer Rd, Sunnyvale, CA 94086. For more information please call 408-705-7904 or 408-564-6704 or send email to saibandhu. You can also visit our website is www.Shirdisaiparivaar.org. Shirdi Saibaba temple, Los Angeles, CADevotees in Los Angeles area are informed about Sri Shirdi Saibaba temple in Los Angeles area. The temple is located at - 144 South 4th Street, Montebello, CA 90640. For more information please call Krishna Samantula at 949-679-9938 or visit www.shirdisaila.org. Saibaba Temple, Columbus, OhioDevotees in Columbus and surrounding Ohio locations area are informed about Sri Shirdi Saibaba temple in Metro Columbus area. The temple is located in a leasing space at 7674 Sawmill Rd, Dublin, OH 43016. Please attend daily Aaratis and Thursday bhajans. For more information please call Panditjee at 614-799-8411 or visit www.saibaba.cc. Shirdi Sai bhajans every Thursday at Maitland, FloridaDevotees are invited to participate in Sai study and bhajans on Thursdays between 7-8 pm at Meditation Gallery, 219 E Horatio Ave, Maitland, FL 32715. For more details please contact Bonnie at 407-830-1276. Sri Shirdi Sai Temple of Austin, TXSri Shirdi Sai Temple of Austin, Texas opened at 601 E Whitestone Blvd (RM 1431), Cedar Park, TX. Daily 4 aarthis are performed to Sai Baba. As part of service to needy, a weekly sandwich seva is also conducted. For more information, please visit www.saiaustin.org. Shirdi Sai Mandir, Dulles, VAShirdi Sai Mandir is located at 43671 Trade Center Place #166 Dulles, VA 20166. The mandir is open through the week in the evenings from 6pm to 9 pm. Sri Satyanarayan pooja will be conducted every full moon day. Please visit the mandir website www.shirdisaimandir.org or call (703) 661-4724 for more information on activities, events and other information. Shirdi Sai Mandir, TorontoShirdi Sai Mandir Toronto is open from 7am to 9pm for darshan. Extended hours on thursdays and saturdays. For more information, program schedule or directions please call 647-444-4724 FROM THE EDITORS KEYBOARD: In the true spirit of Sai devotion, contributors are requested to remember the global nature of Sai Vichaar readership. Therefore, the content, language, style and presentation, appropriate to a worldwide readership will be more rewarding and fulfilling. It should also be noted that when a section from any material other than their own is quoted or referred to, it is the authors' responsibility to acknowledge the source appropriately. The "Question of the week" for this week is Sri Saibaba said, "Purification of mind is absolute necessity for the spiritual growth, without this all sadhanas are of no use" - Comment? Humbly Yours,The Editor ABOUT THIS EMAIL: This newsletter is not sent unsolicited. This newsletter is e-mailed to you because of at least one of the following reasons:1. You have d through our on-line page,2. You have visited our web site and shown interest in the Sai topics and asked for information, or3. You have been gifted a subscription by a friend or a relative. To Subscribe Sai Vichaar for receipt by Email please visit the URL http://www.saibaba.org/newsletter.html and select the option from the menu. If you are subscribing the newsletter for your friend or a relative, we request that the person concerned may be notified about receiving the newsletter and the willingness to receive the newsletter be confirmed. To Un-Subscribe receipt of Sai Vichaar, please visit the URL http://www.saibaba.org/newsletter.html and select the option from the menu. If you have problems accessing the web page due to network problems, please send an e-mail to support with the words "Un Sai Vichaar" in the subject line. To make a contribution to any of the sections of Sai Vichaar, please visit the URL http://www.saibaba.org/newsletter.html and select the Submit Articles to Sai Vichaar option from the menu. Back copies of HTML version of Sai Vichaar can be accessed by visting the URL http://www.saibaba.org/whatsnew.html. For any questions or more information regarding this e-mail or our web site, please send an e-mail to maildrop and your inquiries will be attended to promptly. Thank you,The webmaster From and Editor: Shirdi Sai Baba Web Site Shirdi Sai Baba Sanstha (A non-profit organization) Mail: 12N950 State Route 47 Hampshire, IL 60140, USA Email maildrop Phone 847-931-4058 Fax 847-931-4066 © Copyright 1998-2008 saibaba.org, Shirdi Sai Baba Sanstha - Sai Vichaar Weekly may only be redistributed in its unedited form. Written permission must be obtained to reprint or cite the information contained within this newsletter. Sai Vichaar is devoted to the philosophy and teachings of Shri Sadguru Sai Baba of Shirdi, and will take every measure to avoid topics or themes contradicting the same. Sai Vichaar team or the Shirdi Sai Baba web site is not responsible for the opinions expressed by individual contributors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.